Daphne votes to fill four vacant positions

DAPHNE, Alabama — The City Council voted Tuesday to fill four recently vacated employee slots — three police posts and one Civic Center position.

While all council members supported hiring the three police officers, Councilman Derek Boulware objected to replacing the event assistant for the Civic Center.

"The idea of a hiring freeze is that, once there’s a vacancy, you don’t refill it in order to realize the savings," Boulware said. A city hiring freeze has been in effect since June 2009.

Councilman Gus Palumbo said that one of the guidelines that the council set out for itself when enacting the hiring freeze was to exempt positions that, left unfilled, would decrease the city’s revenues. And the city earns a sizable income through the Civic Center, he said.

Palumbo said Tuesday that, during last week’s work session, he had asked Civic Center Director Margaret Thigpen how she would proceed if the council elected not to refill the event-assistant slot.

"She said we would have to turn down some business," Palumbo said.

The council then voted 5-1 to fill the Civic Center position. Councilman Bailey Yelding was absent. The council voted unanimously to refill the police vacancies — a school crossing guard, and two patrol officers, which includes a school resource officer position.

In other business Tuesday, the council:

Unanimously approved spending $10,000 of BP PLC oil spill money to purchase parade barricades. Council members and Mayor Fred Small said Wednesday that the purchase was permissible under the guidelines set out for the funds.

"This is part of the first $500,000 we received," for which the city’s guidelines were broad, allowing purchases for "public safety," Small said. The guidelines for the second disbursement of $465,000 are more stringent, he said. Daphne still has more than $540,000 of the $965,000 awarded to it, city officials said.

Officially accepted the second payment of BP cash — in the amount of $465,000 — which the city actually received from the state last year.

"That was a housekeeping measure," Council President Cathy Barnette said Wednesday. City staffers are discussing many possible uses for that money, including the drafting of a new city emergency management plan and construction of a storage building beside the police station, Barnette said.

Honored retiring police officer Michael Williams, who had served for the past six years as the resource officer for the city’s schools, by giving him his service weapon.